The views of a rabble-rouser and former stay-at-home dad on protests, politics, parenthood, groupthink, and music.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Halloween

Happy Halloween from the West Coast. My son went trick-or-treating on Sunday - a lot of the local businesses host their own candy-gathering festivities. Two things happened that reminded me how very lucky I am. First: my kiddo goes up to a bucket of candy that a local business left in front of their closed door. There are two pixy-stick type things in the bucket. Another kid walks up at the same time. My son picks up one of the sticks, and hands the kid the other one. He explains to me simply: "This one was bent."He kept the bent one, and gave the other kid the undamaged one.

I don't coach him on these things. He just decides on his own to do the kindest thing. He is a kind kid at heart. It makes me so happy to see this in action.Second: he got two fortune cookies from a Chinese restaurant during the trick-or-treating, and gave me one. (See: kind kid.) This is what the fortune said.

"A beautiful, smart and loving person will be coming into your life."

I thought immediately of my partner of nearly three years, this wonderful, intelligent, beautiful woman who is helping me raise my son and her daughters. This amazing, warm-hearted, ferociously smart, wickedly funny person who came into my life like a gift from the universe. I sent her a picture of the fortune and said, "it came true already!"Life is good right now. As much as I complain about the day-to-day - the petty nuisances of work, bills, politics - life is good right now.